This week I witnessed the possibility and perils of animals in the classroom. I was observing a fourth grade classroom as part of a grant where I RTOP the instruction. Prior to the students walking in, I looked at a couple of tanks, and saw one full of green plants in a moist environment. I looked carefully for the critters inside. The classroom teacher saw me looking and told me that unfortunately the district had turned off the air conditioning in the summer and the tree frogs had died. Same thing occurred with the snake tank on the counter to the left. How sad.

The lesson commenced and it was on tadpoles and toads. It was clear that they had been following the rapid life cycle of some tadpoles and really tiny adult toads, taken from a mud hole after an Arizona rain. Using a document camera the progress of the tadpoles and different sizes were shown. Students were asked to come up with possible reasons why the tadpoles were different in size, which was an excellent way to induce critical thinking. There is no doubt, that the students were engaged in this lesson because they had been following the progress of the real living tadpoles and the toads.

Back in 1986 I was teaching in the Bronx, and I had my Madagascan hissing roaches and a tropical fish tank. For a while, I even had a salt-water tank in my classroom. The fish and especially the roaches (this was before they became popular) were excellent for engaging the students in various life science topics. At various times, places, and levels, I have had

Our new family sulcata tortoise: Not a classroom pet.

mealworms, earthworms, crickets, and other living animals in the classroom. I haven’t been a fan of the macro size animal because of the easier care requirements of the smaller animals. Animals in a classroom do add interest, but they are also a lot of work for the teacher and they can cause problems. With school vacations and so much happening in the classroom, it is difficult to always ensure a healthy animal environment. Also, it seems interest would be best kept by having a variety of living things cycle in and out of the room. An enterprising pet store and school district could partner, so the pet shop has living organism kits that teachers could check out for one or two week periods. This would help ensue that the animals are properly cared for and that the children experience a richer segment of the Earth’s biodiversity.

References

A Guide to Using Animals in the Classroom http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Portals/9/pdf/pub009.pdf

Animals In the Classroom? A Guide to Decision

Ask Online Guide: Animal Care for Classroom Pets http://www.njabr.org/programs/ask/guide/

When I was a doctoral student at Ohio State University, my advisor Stan Helgeson would tell us that the simplest questions were the most difficult to answer. “What is science?” ranks right up there for simplicity and difficulty. This week I had the good fortune to be invited to the “Teachers as Investigators” conference at Northern Arizona University. Todd Wojtowicz, a doctoral student in biology, really got us thinking with his presentation, “What is science?”

Todd agreed to my request to post the PowerPoint in this blog. I think that “What is science?” has many potential answers depending upon your education and experience. It is, however, important for science educators to converse with our science colleagues to understand current views. So without any other introduction, I present Todd’s Presentation: What is science_ Wojtowicz.

At the Chautauqua Institution

I had the opportunity to vacation and to visit the Chautauqua Institution, a most interesting place if you are interested in teacher education, the fine arts, religion, day camps, the history of education, and lake fun. Mayville, NY was having their book sale, and I was delighted to purchase a Union Fourth Reader by Charles W. Sanders (1877) for $1.00. A couple of months (May, 2010) ago I had my journal article published (The Rise and Fall of Science Education: A Content Analysis of Science in Elementary Reading Textbooks of the 19th Century) that looked at the science in 19^th Century readers and analyzed how it changed and suggested possible reasons for the change.

Readers, such as the famous McGuffey Readers, were THE education book in the 19^th Century and they were the curriculum, and the science in these books were most likely to be students first exposure to formal science education. To summarize quickly, science rose to a high level in the middle of the 19^th century and then declined. Some evidence suggests that there was a backlash to the amount of science covered, and that the goal of making reading literary was pursued. Also, science as a separate subject in the form of object teaching and nature study became more established.

Of course, many people incorrectly delimit the term technology to devices that have integrated circuits in them. But technology includes many items present in the classroom from white boards to textbooks. With the vagueness of many state standards, it is natural for science teachers to use textbooks as guides for the level of content to help students master. So textbooks continue to influence the curriculum, as defined as “what a teacher does with students when the door of the classroom closes.” But as all experienced teachers know; trying to cover an entire textbook is folly. Authors and textbook companies pack lots of content in them so nobody will say, “I’m not going to buy textbook z because it doesn’t have [obscure] content p and q.”

I have co-authored several textbooks, including Biology the Dynamics of Life, Ecology, Glencoe Life Science, and some others listed in the references. It is sad to see the textbooks misused in classrooms. They shouldn’t be used in class but they should be used as a compliment to instruction at home. I think the worst thing for science education is the teacher who tells students, while they are in class, to read chapter x and answer all the odd questions at the end of the chapter. From discussion, interactive didactic lesson, demonstrations, to hands-on experiences, classroom learning can be so much richer. The textbook at home serves as a strong compliment—another opportunity to build conceptual understanding.

Yet many schools struggling to make ends meet, don’t have one copy of the textbook for each student—they only have one copy for each desk in their room. Thus teachers are forced to have students read the textbook in class if they want students to read the textbook. Relief is on the horizon, as most textbooks are now online and students can read them at home if they have an internet connection. Even if there are student copies of the textbooks, chiropractors will be relieved that students don’t have to lug these hefty books home anymore.  But alas this might hinder the development of the next UFC Brock Lesnar.

The problem coming down the pipeline is that poorer schools in high-poverty areas may not have the textbooks for each student and the students may not have internet access. It is and will be a double whammy. Perhaps the “Kindle versus other e-reader” battles will lead to disruptive technology that is low cost and that all students can have at home for their textbook reading. Amazingly enough, Sanders’ Fourth Reader is available for free on the Kindle but as expected it is also available at Google Books.

References

Biggs, A Feather, R. M., Jr., Rillero, P., & Zike, D. (2008). Glencoe Science Level Blue: Student Edition New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill (ISBN: 978-0-07-877811-7, 815 pages).

Biggs, A., Daniel, L., Ortleb, E., Rillero, P., & Zike, D., (2008). Glencoe Life Science: Student Edition. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill (ISBN: 0-07-877800-X, 960 pages).

Latourrelle, S., Laub, A., Rillero, P.  & Schick, R.  (2007). The Living Environment (New York Regents Review Series). New York: Glencoe/ McGraw-Hill (ISBN: 0-07-879731-4, 269 pages).

Biggs, A., Daniel, L., Ortleb, E., Rillero, P., and Zike, D., (2005). Glencoe Life Science: Student Edition. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill (ISBN: 0-07-861702-2, 960 pages).

Rillero, P. (2010). Early Science Education:  A Content Analysis of Science in Elementary Reading Textbooks of the Nineteenth Century. School Science and Mathematics, 110(5), 227-237

Rillero, P. & Zike, D. (2005) Ecology: Student Edition. New York: Glencoe/ McGraw-Hill (ISBN: 0-07-8617-464, 209 pages).

Biggs, A., K., Hagins, Kapicka, C., Lundgren, L., Rillero, P., Tallman, K., & Zike D (2004). Biology the Dynamics of Life: Student’s Edition. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. (ISBN: 0-07-829900-4, 1190 pages)

This month I was invited to work with Lee Hartwell (Nobel Prize winner for his work on cells that had important implications for cancer research) and his team at the Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. While not as important as cancer research to save individual lives, our work can contribute to the goal of helping to sustain an individual planet. We are developing a sustainability course for Arizona State University that will be taken by all elementary education students.

Getting to Seattle early, I was able to walk around Lake Union, take a short boat cruise, and find a neat coffee house. As I was enjoying my coffee and the cool air from the open windows, I noticed a very sleek red sports car and then a sign that said Tesla. I had just read an article about the two electric sports cars trying to survive in the US and this was the showroom for one. I bustled over with my coffee and found that they were selling for $108,000. I asked if it was okay to take some photographs, and the receptionist said, “If you put down your coffee, you can get in, and I will take your picture.” Which was an offer that couldn’t be refused.

Sitting in this car, and thinking, “Wow, I am here to work on sustainability and here I am in this brilliant electric sports car.” Perhaps it was the forces of karma that seemed to bring these two events together, my mind actually started thinking of scenarios for me to purchase this car! If you know me, this is so far from who I am; I am a “buy and hold” car person (my small 1999 Acura, that I bought used, has 136,000 miles), who always pays cash for vehicles, and who treats cars as means to get from point A to B rather than as adornments. But the karma and sitting in this awesome vehicle contributed to a flight of fancy, that has now landed. Just as the fox called the grapes he couldn’t get sour, it was tempting to disparage as I walked away: “I could buy three foreclosed houses in Phoenix for this much money,” “It was kind of difficult to get into the car,” and “I want a car that I can drink coffee in.” I do, however, admit that I really hope this company succeeds, and electric cars become more than just curiosities. And to be honest, I don’t really want three foreclosed houses, I need to get more limber, and drink less coffee. I do also hope that you buy this car, keep it in great shape, and then sell it to me in five years for one-quarter the original cost.  Today is also the IPO of Tesla, I hope they are successful in raising capital for this venture.

As we move to sustainable ways of producing electricity, electric cars will be a much greener alternative. We need to capitalize on the interests of young people and help them understand how these cars work and why electric cars can contribute to cleaner environments and less use of fossil fuels. Adaptive Curriculum has an Activity Object on solar cars, which improves on the Tesla design by having solar panels. It is difficult to imagine solar panels on the Tesla, but I’m sure in the not-too-distant future we will be seeing paints that are embedded with hidden electronics that convert sunlight to electricity.

Both of my sons are competitive soccer players. When you live in Phoenix, AZ and you see young athletes running and sweating on a hot day for a prolonged period of time, it is easy to conclude that they would benefit from a beverage with electrolytes and some sugar. The electrolytes replenish the salt that is lost in sweating, and can thus prevent muscle cramping, with the most important ion being potassium. Young competitive soccer players also have very little body fat, so the sugar gives their body energy.

I confess, I went through a Gatorade, PowerAde, and Propel stage for our boys. My oldest son prefers Gatorade, my youngest Propel, and PowerAde was often the least expensive. When I would grocery shop I would always stop on this aisle to see if there were bargains to be had, and then I would stock up. The drinks, made by either Coca-Cola or Pepsi, contain electrolytes and sugar so they seemed to be meeting these basic needs. I like the clearness of the Propel, in that I prefer to not have artificial colors sweating out of the pores of my children (which I never understood why Gatorade thought this was an appealing commercial). Tedd Gorden, of MSU, describes the pros and cons of different formulas for sports drinks.

On hot days with long games or practices, we would send our sons with a large water container and a bottle of a sports drink. Their bodies seemed to tell them what was best, and they always drank far more water than the sports drinks. I have now moved to natural alternatives, so our oldest son is drinking Martinelli apple juice (which he says is the best tasting and comes in a fun round bottle) and our youngest Welch’s grape juice from 10 oz containers. The juices are about the same prices as the 32 oz bottles of sports drinks. So per volume, they cost three times as much, but per outing they are about the same.

If you could design your own sports drink what would it have in it? This intriguing idea is used by Adaptive Curriculum to engage students in the Activity Object “Osmosis.” From this engagement, students examine red blood cells in isotonic, hypertonic, and hypotonic solutions. Then students place raw eggs with the shell removed into different unknown solutions and then label what the solution must be based upon the weight gain or loss in the eggs. The Activity Object has a great engagement with multiple strong interactions. And when it comes to sports drinks, hypotonic solutions are best, whether it is made by Coca-Cola, Pepsi, or grown on a tree.

One of the major themes that runs through many facets of science is the notion of surface area to volume ratio. I remember being a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kenya and using an experimental, guided-inquiry curriculum, inspired by the British Nuffield science program. Students made plasticine cubes of various sizes. I’m not sure why British people have an aversion to clay, but plasticine seems to be their school sculpting material. Then students measured the surface area of the cubes and calculated the volume. Then they calculated the surface area to volume ratio and discover that the larger the object, the smaller the surface area to volume ratio.

Which helps to explain many types of adaptations in biology and why individual cells can’t be the size of houses; they would simply not have enough surface area to absorb the materials they need, like oxygen, or to expel waste. From villi in the intestines to convolutions in the brain, our bodies have many adaptations to increase surface area.

Adaptive Curriculum has a guided inquiry Activity Object called “Surface Area to Volume Ratio in Organisms.” A clever engagement draws the students into the interactive experience. You have a plate of cheese with different size cubes that you are going to put into the microwave. But first, learners predict whether the large cubes or the small cubes will melt first.

Obviously, the small cheese cubes will melt before the larger ones. If you thought this, you have experienced a discrepant event. In actuality, the large cubes melt first. Since the microwave heats from the inside, the smaller cubes lose their heat faster than the large ones. The larger cubes, thus retain more heat and melt faster.  Discrepant events are powerful, because learners want to know why they were wrong.

From this, learners virtually change the size of cubes and see the changes in surface area, volume, and surface area to volume ratio. Then body sizes and shapes of animals are explored, as students learn about the implications of size and shape for heat loss.

My Peace Corps teaching and Adaptive Curriculum are different modes of guided inquiry and discovery learning, but both can help produce deep and life long learning.

Today, I am at NSTA in Philadelphia. A great city, and we have been having fabulous weather. My presentation today is on the Standards Based Science Fair. I am posting the PowerPoint for this presentation. NSTA 2010.SBSF

In a semi-darkened classroom at Coronado High School, the recessed computer projector shined down upon a slightly cushioned floor. David Birchfield, politely told me, “We only walk on that after we take our shoes off.” So I quickly jumped off. Ms. Mills and her physics class came in, and the students sat in chairs around the perimeter of the square mat, almost as though they were there for a martial arts exhibition.

Then the physics began. There was a handmade object that when you pushed a button it dropped its bottom. It had reflective tape so the mini-cameras around the room could pick up its motion and transmit it to a computer, which interpreted the data and then created dots on the mat to show the motion of the large object or the separated objects.

A student spun around in a circle and then pushed the button. The bottom sphere dropped and fell away from the object. From the dot pattern it was quite clear, and one student even said it spontaneously: “It moved away at the tangent.” No longer would these students have the misconception that a moving object would still hold the circular force because of its prior motion. Indeed, from Newton’s first law, it was apparent the straight-line motion of the object.

Students took turns trying it. Then to keep them engaged in their free exploration, there were a number of challenges issued, starting with “Let’s aim at Justin.” Then they aimed at a fixed target. Then at a target moving the same direction they were spinning, with a student walking and holding the target, and then at a target moving in the opposite direction.

After the class was over, I tried it as well, this time sans shoes. I have experienced the future, and it is on the floor. There is more power in an experience that is whole body, rather than just fingers on a keyboard or a mouse. Watching the physics class, there is also the learner interactions that make this a potentially powerful learning environment. To be sure, we will see applications like this in museums before it makes it into regular classrooms. Because it can be used with many content areas, some schools might have a SMALLab (Situated Multimedia Arts Learning Lab) for all their teachers to share. And no doubt the 3-D tracking system can be brought to use with interactive white boards, making their use more economical.

My thanks goes to Arizona State University’s David Birchfield, Kelly Phillips, Tatyana Koziupa, Mina Johnson, and Leanna Archambault for letting me experience the future. This will be a tool that will help students overcome misconceptions and experience science in a different way.

When it comes to science supplies, you can be sure that measuring devices such as stop watches, scales, rulers, and graduated cylinders will be useful. There is risk however in purchasing other materials, as you wonder will they work.

It all started well with my Sprout and Grow Window kits that I purchased for my elementary sciencemethods classes. They planted the generous supply of pea plant seeds that the kit provided. And in 5 of the 6 windows we had healthy germination. The plants looked neat growing up out of the thin plastic container housing the roots.

But the window idea paid no dividends. Although it was possible to see some small roots amid the very dark soil, it was disappointing how little you could actually see. I took one of the kits home to care for the plants. About one week after we started the kits, I planted the same pea plants in my home garden. Last week I took pictures of pea plants in the kit and in my garden. Our home telephone is put into each picture for scale.

Garden pea plants with phone at bottom

I know this is not a carefully controlled experiment. Nevertheless, clearly the outdoor garden plants did much better than the window indoor plants. Most people would guess that would be the case, even in a “winter” in Phoenix (where we have so far managed to avoid a seriously deadly frost). But without the benefit of being able to view the roots well, you have to wonder, why would you want to use the Sprout and Grow Window kits? So this review, gives these kits a rating of only 1 out of 4 test tubes. In other words, I don’t recommend that you purchase the product.

But it is nice that the pea plants they supplied grew so well outdoors. I have never grown peas before and I must confess I felt a connection to Gregor Mendel as I saw my plants rise up and flower. I even have pea pods starting to form. I think I will hold off on any genetic crosses for the time being but I think I might be up for a virtual experience at Adaptive Curriculum’s “Mendel’s Experiment.”

From the Activity Object "Mendel's Experiment" by Adaptive Curriculum

The videos on television show some of the massive destruction and the human toll of the recent earthquake in Haiti. It is difficult to imagine the suffering of the Haitian people. It is an unfortunate example of the devastation of a magnitude 7 earthquake.

It is natural to wonder why or how. When students are ready, teachers may want to discuss  earthquakes and their causes.

The folks at IRIS have a website with a PowerPoint presentation and Quicktime movie that explain a lot of details associated with this particular earthquake and earthquakes in general. The PowerPoint has excellent pictures of the destruction to buildings, without presenting images of human suffering that would be difficult for some students. The image to the right is taken from the PowerPoint.

IRIS (AKA the Incorporated Research Institutes for Seismology) has lots of resources for learning about earthquakes including SeisMac 2.0 which allows Macintosh computers to become seismographs.

In the quest for Science Literacy, we strive to give students an understanding of natural events before they happen. Adaptive Curriculum has two strong Activity Objects, one is on determining the magnitude of an earthquake and the other is determining the location of the earthquake. The image below is from “Earthquakes: Measuring Magnitude.“